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Hope and Experience: Election Reform through the Lens of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project
JUNE 29, 2010
Hope and Experience: Election Reform through the Lens of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project
We launched the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project in June 2005 with the encouragement and financial support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Five years later we bring the project to a close. We take this opportunity to reflect on the state of election administration in the United States almost a decade after the extended and controversial Florida vote count in the 2000 presidential election and suggest how additional changes in technology, election law and administrative practices might further strengthen American elections in the years ahead.
Featured Resources
This report reviews individual state guidelines regarding registration when voters move, and finds that they are inconsistently applied, confusing to both voters and officials, and that current federal and state law protections are overly limiting.
In a survey conducted with public assistance agencies in 40 states and the District of Columbia, Dēmos asked about the feasibility of implementing an upgrade of voter registration databases based upon the records kept by these agencies.
The NVRA was meant to increase registration levels across the country and as a result, increase participation in elections. Despite the fifteenth anniversary of NVRA in 2008, registration problems remain an issue, as Estelle Rogers, a Consulting Attorney with Project Vote finds.
This is a collection of papers presented at the VoteID 2009 Conference, the Second International Conference on E-voting and Identity, held in Luxembourg from September 7-8, 2009. The papers cover a wide range of issues, including voting technology in the United States and around the world.
This paper examines the impact of electoral laws on turnout in elections. The authors find that by aggregating turnout among different demographic groups, they can estimate the impact of electoral reforms over time.
Research Projects
Dēmos is a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization founded in 2000. A multi-issue national organization, Dēmoscombines research, policy development, and advocacy to influence public debates and catalyze change.
Project Vote is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) that works to empower, educate, and mobilize low-income, minority, youth, and other marginalized and under-represented voters.
Part of the Institute for Governmental Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, the Election Administration Research Center (EARC) aims to improve the administration of elections.
As part of its broader research focus on elections, campaign ethics, campaign finance, and the legislative process, the Center for American Politics and Citizenship at the University of Maryland is engaged in research projects on voting technology and ballot design specifically.
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law is a non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on fundamental issues of democracy and justice.
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
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